Surgeries can be long and tedious procedures requiring intense focus and high accuracy from a surgeon. To help surgeons stay at the best of their abilities, it is important to consider a surgeon's comfort and keep fatigue to a minimum during a surgical procedure. To this end, robots can help sustain a surgeon's functionality and performance over extended periods of time. Moreover, robots may provide effective tools to increase the surgeon's capability and efficiency beyond levels sustainable with manual tools.
Some advantages provided by robotics in surgery include: allowing the surgeon to operate more comfortably to lessen strain and tiredness; providing better visualization of an operating area; allowing manipulation of tools exceeding manual dexterity; providing greater steadiness and accuracy; enabling teleoperation; and facilitating shorter procedure times, thus lowering costs for providers and patients. Some of these advantages are especially important for successful minimal invasive surgery (MIS) and microsurgery, where dexterity, access, and good vision are paramount.
Conventional robots and surgical tools, however, do not effectively maximize these benefits particularly when scaled down to sizes suitable for MIS and microsurgery. For example, some conventional gear-based transmissions have machinability limits. Moreover, gears may interfere with a working channel of a tool where space is at a premium. Conventional pulley-based systems may suffer from a diminishing bending radius when scaled down, and spring-flexure-based systems often lack stiffness. Even tools relying on simple elastic properties of materials may experience exacerbated fatigue issues.